n my possession all this
time I might have written this message whenever I chose, torn out the
leaf, and pretended that it had been done on the night of the gunfiring.
Luckily Dell, the friend who defended me in my trial, kept the book. It
was produced at the court-martial in my defence, and the torn edge
shown, with the marks on the next page made by pressing down heavily
with a blunt pencil. Vague traces of words could be seen, but even with
a magnifying glass they couldn't be read. There was no evidence that
amounted to anything, but my friend kept the book. He said it might be
of use some day. I had no such hope, but now--my God, Peggy, with that
coat and your story, the case against Vandyke seems to me complete!"

"How thankful I am to hear you say that!" I almost sobbed, moved by his
excitement to greater excitement of my own. "I felt it must be so; but
I'm only a girl. I didn't _know_. I couldn't be sure. Oh, Eagle! You'll
never understand what it is to me to think I've been able to help you,
even a little. If it hadn't been for me the dreadful thing would never
have happened. You'd still be just what you were before we met."

"You've not helped me a 'little'; you've given me new life," he said.
"Some time I'll tell you, maybe, why I'd rather have the gift from you
than any one else. But I can't understand what you mean by saying 'the
thing would never have happened' if it hadn't been for you."

"If I hadn't wanted a new dress, and if I hadn't gone to Wardour Street
to sell my lace and make money to buy the frock, we should never have
known each other. You wouldn't have seen Diana; we shouldn't have gone
to America, and if we hadn't gone to America, and met Major Vandyke,
those guns would never have been fired, and heaps of official bother
would have been saved. But far the best of all, _you_ would have been as
happy as ever!'"

"You might as well blame yourself for being born," said Eagle; "and on
my soul, I tell you, Peggy, that even without the new hope you've given
me to-night, I wouldn't go back if I could choose, and be without my
experience in Belgium, or--or without _you_ in my life."

He held out his hands for mine, and I gave them to a grasp that hurt.
Something he was about to say; but before he had time to speak there
came a long shrill peal of the electric bell.

Eagle dropped my hands instantly. "By Jove! It must be Jim. He's
forgotten his key! I don't want him to see you, Peggy. He's a very go